friday feast: looking for a home

June 14, 2012September 20, 2017 ~ jama ~ 44 Comments

Memory
by
James Tate

A little bookstore used to call to me.
Eagerly I would go to it
hungry for the news
and the sure friendship.
It never failed to provide me
with whatever I needed.
Bookstore with a donkey in its heart,
bookstore full of clouds and
sometimes lightning, showers.
Books just in from Australia,
books by madmen and giants.
Toucans would alight on my stovepipe hat
and solve mysteries with a few chosen words.
Picasso would appear in a kimono
requesting a discount, and then
laugh at his own joke.
Little bookstore with its belly
full of wisdom and confetti,
with eyebrows of wildflowers-
and customers from Denmark and Japan,
New York and California, psychics
and lawyers, clergymen and hitchhikers,
the wan, the strong, the crazy,
all needing books, needing directions,
needing a friend, or a place to sit down.
But then one day the shelves began to empty
and a hush fell over the store.
No new books arrived.
When the dying was done,
only a fragile, tattered thing remained,
and I haven’t the heart to name it.

~ from MEMOIR OF THE HAWK (Harper Collins, 2001)

***

I feel sad whenever I drive by the building that used to be Borders Books and Music. I still remember when it first opened about 18 years ago, the first café bookstore in our neighborhood where you could sit with a cup of tea and a cookie, read all the British kitchen design magazines, browse Writer’s Market for the next place to send your short story, scan the latest literary magazines for new poets, write character sketches of the people sitting at the next table.

No matter how many cups of tea you drank, how long you lounged in one of the cushy armchairs or listened to audio samples of Lucy Kaplansky’s latest CD, nobody rushed you or told you to go home. Because you were home.

Borders wasn’t my favorite bookstore of all time nor did it offer the personal service or eclectic selection of books you can only find at a good indie, but it was what we had. What we had after we had to say goodbye to Crown Books, Olsson’s Books and Music, Storybook Palace, The Book Nook, Purple Crayon, A Likely Story, Little Professor, Cheshire Cat, Books and Crannies.

I still buy a lot of books. But I can’t buy the savvy bookseller with the rumpled shirt and smudgy bifocals whose eyes lit up when I asked for a Georgette Heyer Regency romance, or the James Dean look alike with the red kerchief who surprised me by recommending the Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook (still one of my favorites). I cannot buy the thrill of stumbling upon a hot-off-the-press, beautifully designed art book (something you definitely have to see in person to fully appreciate), and then handing over my birthday gift card to make it mine, all mine, right that very second!

I can’t buy those moments with my tribe — browsers, buyers, coffee drinkers, gift seekers, writers, researchers, music lovers, teachers, students — all of us reading alone together, sometimes finding something we didn’t know we needed, oftentimes going there for no particular reason but always leaving feeling happier, nourished, inspired. I can’t buy that feeling of safe familiarity, of knowing there is at least one place in the world where I feel like I belong.

I avoid driving by the old Borders if at all possible. They’ve turned it into a golf store — a huge, gaping 19th hole.

***

The vibrant, uncommonly talented, wish-she-could-be-my-teacher poet Mary Lee is hosting the Roundup today at A Year of Reading. Join the tribe, read some good poems and reviews, reflect and appreciate. Enjoy your weekend!

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munching with maira, or, what do you want to be when you grow up?

June 14, 2012October 5, 2017 ~ jama ~ 10 Comments

#8 in an eclectic collection of notable noshes to whet your appetite and brighten your day.

When I was four years old we moved away from my first home, where the family gathered for lunch each Saturday singing songs around the table. We flew over the ocean to this hard gray city, and one of the first things I smelled was onions frying. I FELL IN LOVE with the coffee shop. The squeak of the stool. The shine of the aluminum. The stainless steel. The griddle. The toaster. The steam that rises. The noise. The choice. The confidence. And presiding over the frenzy? An eight-armed octopus called the short-order cook whose name is Barney March. Half a yawn past dawn, Estelle the waitress throws out the orders loud and fast. “ADAM AND EVE ON A RAFT. WRECK ‘EM!” (Could I kindly have scrambled eggs on toast?) “WHISKEY DOWN WITH A STRETCH!” (Rye toast with a Coke, please.) HE GRABS EGGS. (360 a day.) He poaches, fries, scrambles, boils soft, boils hard. He flips flapjacks. Sizzles bacon. He is the morning greeter, counter whizzer, white-apron wearer who toasts that white, rye, whole wheat, bagel, bialy. He is a hash slinger, potato masher, egg-cream whipper, onion chopper, plate stacker, burger slider. People say, “Hello, how ya doin’? Hiya. Howarya?” It’s a jazz combo. The soup slurper. The doughnut dunker. The pickle cruncher. The cash register rings. The phone rings. “CHICKEN SOUP, BOOTS!” (Chicken soup to go.) The deliveryman grabs the brown-bagged soup, dashes out past the accordion player on the corner and rings the bell of the finicky and persnickety . . .

MAIRA KALMAN RESUME

OBJECTIVE:

To pursue a career in the growing field of donut product marketing

STATEMENT:

I believe I am highly suited to this career because I’m eager to taste many kinds of fillings and I’m very curious about sprinkles.

EDUCATION:

Harvard University summa cum laude
Major: Leisure Food Technology
Minor: Beverage Management
Junior Year Abroad: Bomboli Program, Florence, Italy
Senior Thesis: “Crullers: The Myth and Meaning”

~ from Chicken Soup, Boots by Maira Kalman (Viking, 1993)

***

This tasty tidbit is brought to you by a blogger who also likes chicken soup, boots, taking naps, snacking, donuts and cafés, and who took time off from balancing an egg on its end to type this post. Still trying to figure out how to grow up to be Maira.

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apple pie 4th of july winners!

June 11, 2012September 30, 2017 ~ jama ~ 11 Comments

Why yes. It’s time once again to risk life and limb to select the winners of our Apple Pie 4th of July Summer Giveaway.

As some of you may know, last time we nearly avoided any semblance of monkey business, riots in the ranks, or tetchy tampering with contest results.

Nearly.

Determined to avoid yet another fiasco involving false mustaches, Groucho Marx impersonations, or twitchy dowsing rods gone amok, we sent an urgent missive to the ever steady and reliable Mr. Random Integer Generator, who, after a brief sojourn in the French Riviera, Peugeoted himself across the border and is, at this very moment, relaxing in Tuscany with a glass of Chianti, pecorino, and summer-glorious panzanella.

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cool book purses!

June 4, 2012October 1, 2017 ~ jama ~ 8 Comments

Recently spotted these on Etsy and couldn’t resist sharing.

Michelle of Chick-Lit Designs specializes in designer book purses, clutches, eReader and iPad/tablet covers. If the book is large enough, the handbag will include a pocket for your eReader.

*Children’s Book of Virtues iPad/tablet cover*

Aren’t they fun? A great novelty gift that blends the old with the new. If you don’t see a book that you like at her shop, she will try to find the perfect book. Or, if you already have a book that you would like converted into a purse or cover, place a custom order.

In case you’re worried about the book pages, Michelle donates them fully intact to a local refugee center. You also have the option of having her re-bind them in matching fabric. Nice gift set idea for your special bookish friends. ☺

♥ Click here to read more about Michelle, who was a recent Featured Seller at Etsy.

♥ Click here to visit Chick-Lit Designs. She also has another shop featuring wonderful vintage items, Yesterday and Today.

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cornelius discovers iva honeysuckle

May 14, 2012May 13, 2012 ~ jama ~ 16 Comments

While we were busy Poetry Potlucking last month, Candice Ransom’s brand new chapter book, Iva Honeysuckle Discovers the World (Disney/Hyperion, 2012), was released into the wild.

With her loyal canine companion Sweetlips, Iva embarked on her very first adventure — to find buried treasure right in her own little hometown of Uncertain, Virginia. Cornelius loved the book so much he read it three times in a row and was thrilled when we told him we were going to surprise Candice at her Book Launch Party. He was hoping he might get to eat some Preacher Cookies like Iva did in the book.

So, on a beautiful sunny Saturday, we headed down to the bbgb Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia — “bbgb” standing for “bring back good books,” “buy a book give a book,” or whatever else you like (Cornelius says, “bears believe in good books”).

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